First ever multi-country man powered call centre busted in Colombo

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

An illegal call centre manned by a group of two dozen overstaying foreign tourists from nine countries was busted for the first time ever in Sri Lanka by the Department of Immigration and Emigration yesterday in Colombo.  

An immigration department flying squad with the backing of the Navy Intelligence raided an office complex in Dematagoda early yesterday morning, where an alleged call centre was suspected to have been carried out for several weeks, an official said.   

The sleuths however had to retreat from the office building as it was shut in the morning and the squad then raided a private condominium in Kirulapone, where they found a staff of 26 foreigners residing.  

The authorities found 16 Bangladeshi nationals, two Pakistani nationals, two Burundi nationals, one Indian, one Nepali, one Ethiopian national, one Ghana, one Philippine and a Kenyan national. The group consisted of 23 males and three females including an Ethiopian and Philippine national, who had been residing altogether in several apartments in the Kirulapone condominium.   

Preliminary investigations revealed that the Kenyan national had been acting as the supervisor to the call centre staff and a Chinese national operating from overseas with alleged backing of a Sri Lankan counterpart was the mastermind of the business.   

All the foreigners had arrived in the country about three months back on tourist visas and were remaining in the country even after their visas had expired weeks ago. Upon questioning, one of the employees had disclosed that they had been paid Rs.100, 000 per month in addition to the food and lodging expenses being covered by the employer.  

Controller M. G. V. Kariyawasam and Assistant Controller Chandima Munasinghe of the Investigation Division are conducting inquiries on the instructions of the Acting Immigration and Emigration Controller General B. M. D. Nilusha Balasooriya.   

The arrested foreigners had been transferred to the department’s detention centre in Welisara for inquiries. The officials are to further examine the office premises used as a call centre.